


It's a Secret to Everybody

by TheLegendOfChel



Series: Rain or Shine [2]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Video Game World, Archer Lance (Voltron), Demon Keith (Voltron), Established Relationship, Fluff and Humor, M/M, Mage & Demon Queen AU, Married Klance, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-05
Updated: 2019-10-05
Packaged: 2020-11-24 05:38:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,571
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20902511
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheLegendOfChel/pseuds/TheLegendOfChel
Summary: All boss monsters have three forms, one for each stage of their fight. Since Lance never battled Keith in earnest, he’s never seen the Demon King’s true strength.Until today.





	It's a Secret to Everybody

**Author's Note:**

> This is an extra story following the events of my fic “It Never Rains on Saturday.” I highly recommend reading that first to fully understand what’s going on.
> 
> Enjoy! (๑¯◡¯๑)

“What’s it feel like when you respawn?”

Lance looked up from his book. He and Keith were lounging in Keith’s bedroom, Lance propped up against a small mountain of pillows while Keith laid on his stomach, one leathery wing flung over Lance’s lap like a blanket.

“Oh, right,” Lance blinked. “No one’s ever killed you before so you wouldn’t know.”

Keith tilted his head and rested his cheek on his crossed arms to gaze up at Lance.

“No,” Keith agreed, “but even if someone did, I wouldn’t know what it’s like.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’m a boss monster,” Keith shrugged. “We don’t respawn.”

A long silence fell between the two until Lance shot up.

“What?!” Lance shrieked, startling Keith. “What do you mean you don’t respawn?!”

“I mean exactly what I said,” Keith frowned. “If something kills me, that’s it. I don’t come back.”

Lance stared at his husband, his mind somehow racing while still blank. Keith couldn’t respawn? But he loved fighting strong enemies. Before they got married, countless heroes tried to slay Keith. Hell, before they met, even Lance was going to...

Keith sat up, a concerned look on his face.

“Lance, calm down,” the demon placed a hand on Lance’s arm. “It’s okay.”

“How is this okay?” Lance demanded. “I knew the tower was at stake if you lost a battle, but I didn’t know your actual life was, too! And you still accept challengers that make it to the top! Are you crazy?!”

“I may not be able to respawn, but I’m exponentially more powerful than the average demon or human,” Keith said. “No one’s even gotten to my final form, let alone come close to killing me.”

Lance paused, momentarily distracted from his panic. “Your what?”

“My final form. Here, look.” Keith pulled up a holographic screen. He glanced over shyly. “I’ve never shown this to anyone, but you’re my husband so I guess it’s okay.”

Lance gaped at the numbers on the screen. He knew the Demon King was powerful, but Keith’s health and mana stats were even higher than he thought. No wonder no one has beaten him. Lance felt his worry abate a tiny bit.

“My HP is divided into three sections,” Keith explained with a gesture to his health bar. “Once it lowers enough, my next form activates. A few people have lasted long enough to trigger my second form, but no one’s reached the third.”

"Woah," Lance said. "I didn't even know you had another form."

"That's because you never fought me," Keith said. "Not really. You defended yourself, but you never hurt me enough to trigger the second stage."

"What's it look like?"

"Um…" Keith cocked his head, eyes raised in thought, "it's still me, but...bigger? My attacks do more damage too."

"And your third form?"

Keith hesitated. 

"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to," Lance said.

"It's not that," Keith replied. "I...don't actually know what my final form is."

"You don't?"

"Like I said, no one's ever gotten that far," Keith shrugged. "And I can't activate it on my own."

Lance pouted. Now that he knew Keith wasn't in danger, his concern had transformed into curiosity. 

An idea began to form.

"Maybe we could find out," Lance said.

"...I am not standing around while you shoot me with arrows."

"No, no, it would be a proper fight," Lance flapped a hand at his wary husband. "We could spar. You said yourself that I could have beaten you if I hadn't fallen for you first. I'll just forfeit the match once you reach your final form. You should still have a third of your health left, so there's no danger, right?"

"I suppose that could work," Keith said. His lips curled into a smirk. "But there's no need to forfeit. Once I'm at my strongest, I'll KO you in a single hit."

Lance grinned. "We'll see about that."

"Do you want to start now?" 

"Nah, if we're gonna do this, we should do it right. Besides, I've been wanting to try out the tower since it got renovated."

Keith's eyebrows rose. "You want to fight through the whole tower first?"

"Yeah!"

"You're definitely not gonna beat me."

\-----

“You really didn’t have to close off the tower just for me,” Lance said a few days later.

Keith shrugged. “It wasn’t my idea. As soon as everyone heard you wanted to do this, they got excited. I think they want to show you how much they’ve improved.”

“That would be cute if it didn’t involve trying to kill me.”

Keith rolled his eyes.

“Here,” he handed Lance a small glass bottle.

“Thanks.” Lance held it up and peered at the sparkling green powder inside. “What is it?”

“An extra life,” Keith said. “You don’t wanna have to travel all the way back from the respawn zone when you die, do you?”

Lance scoffed. “Who says I’m gonna die?”

Keith raised an eyebrow. “Okay, give it back.”

After a brief pause, Lance placed it in his inventory.

Keith smirked. He smoothed away Lance’s pout with a sweet kiss.

“I’ll see you at the top,” he said.

Lance nodded, and a powerful sweep of his wings launched Keith up into the sky. Once he was out of sight, Lance double checked his equipment and entered the tower.

It had been well over a year since his last dungeon crawl, but Lance quickly got back into the swing of things. Though he was technically one of their rulers, the demons didn’t go easy on him, which Lance appreciated. They fought valiantly, but Lance still managed to get through the first half of the levels without issue. 

The second half got a bit more challenging. Zethrid seemed a little too eager for the chance to battle Lance again and fought harder than ever before. It was fun but forced Lance to use a potion that he'd been hoping to save for later.

Another surprise awaited Lance on Lotor's floor.

"What are you doing here?" Lance asked James.

"What does it look like?" James replied, his sword at the ready.

Lance turned to Lotor, baffled. Lotor shrugged.

"Normally, I prefer to work alone," the demon said, "but when I told James you were taking on the tower challenge, he insisted we team up."

"I didn't realize you were such close friends," Lance raised an eyebrow.

Lotor and James exchanged a look before saying in unison, "We're not."

"..."

Despite their claim, the two worked well together, and Lance had difficulty keeping them at a distance so he could use his bow. As soon as he got one of them within his sights, the other would jump to the rescue. Even so, Lance claimed victory in the end. 

He took a moment to replenish his HP and catch his breath before moving on. Lance knew from experience that walking onto Shiro's floor unprepared was just asking for a KO.

Sure enough, as soon as the door shut behind him, Lance had to dodge-roll to the side when a razor sharp feather shot towards him. 

“Not bad,” Shiro said with a smile. “I was starting to worry you’d gotten rusty.”

“What made you think that?” Lance stood up with a pout.

Shiro shrugged. “I expected you to get here an hour ago. Not your best record.”

“It’s not my fault!” Lance said. “Lotor and James teamed up against me! Is that even allowed?”

“I’ll have a chat with them,” Shiro said. “I’ll let Keith know, too. I’m sure he’s getting antsy waiting for you.”

Lance grinned and raised his bow. “Let’s not waste any more time then.”

The battle was a tough one. Shiro wasn’t called the Champion for nothing, after all. But Lance had beaten him before, and this time was no different.

Finally, Lance stood in front of the familiar ebony doors. He pushed them open and walked inside to approach the figure sitting on one of the two thrones.

“Welcome, hero,” the Demon King drawled. 

Lance struck a heroic pose.

“I’ve come to defeat you, evil villain!” he proclaimed. 

Keith snorted. 

“Challenge accepted,” the demon rose to his feet and drew his sword. “Any last words?”

“As a matter of fact, yes,” Lance shot Keith a wink. “Has anyone ever told you you have beautiful eyes?”

“Only one idiot comes to mind.”

“Ouch,” Lance said, placing a hand on his chest. “I think my HP just dropped a couple of points.”

“You’re ridiculous,” Keith shook his head fondly. “Are we gonna fight or not?”

“Okay, okay,” Lance said. He nocked an arrow onto his bow. “Can’t blame a guy for wanting to banter a bit. We haven’t done this in a while.”

“No, we haven’t,” Keith agreed with a sharp smile. “So I hope you’re ready, because I’m not gonna hold anything back.”

Lance grinned back just as fiercely. “Bring it.”

The next several minutes passed in a blur. Keith stayed true to his word, and Lance had to scramble for his inventory more than once to avoid dying. As Keith wailed on him with a flurry of sword slashes, Lance was glad he’d had the foresight to stock up on guardian acorns to boost his defense stats.

Finally, Lance managed to push Keith back enough to counterattack. Keith flew up into the air with a snap of his wings, performing zigzags and barrel rolls to dodge Lance’s arrows. It was an impressive sight, but Lance was the best archer in Altea. He got several critical hits in before Keith swooped back down with a snarl.

Lance ran around in a serpentine pattern, but wasn’t able to evade the Demon King for long. He fell to the ground with an “Oof!” and rolled onto his back to find a pair of pretty, violet eyes inches from his own.

“Having fun?” Keith purred.

Lance smirked. “Yup!”

He raised his head to peck Keith on the lips, taking the Demon King by surprise. Eyes wide and cheeks bright red, Keith jumped off of Lance.

“You can’t-” Keith spluttered. “That’s cheating!”

“If it makes you feel better, you can kiss me too,” Lance offered.

Keith chucked a fireball at him.

Their game continued for a while longer, Lance sending Keith flirty quips and Keith trying to pretend he was immune to Lance’s charms, until one of Lance’s arrows knocked Keith back farther than usual. Lance paused, concerned.

“Keith?” he asked. “Are you okay?”

Keith stood in the middle of the throne room. Slowly, his expression transformed into a smirk. 

Shadows made of black and red flames wrappped around Keith, encasing him in a cocoon of magic. The dark hair that usually brushed Keith’s shoulders grew until it fell past his waist, and his black fingernails extended into long, sharp claws. Two dark purple markings ran up his neck to curve into points under his eyes. Keith’s horns spiraled up towards the ceiling and his wings expanded, while his entire body grew larger.

Lance stared up at Keith, who was now easily twice as tall as he was before. Glowing red eyes fell shut as Keith stretched out his arms and wings with a satisfied groan.

“It’s been a while since I’ve taken this form,” Keith ran a hand through his long tresses, a cat-like smirk on his lips. “What do you think?”

A strangled sound escaped Lance’s throat. Keith’s smokey laugh only made his face feel hotter. Was Keith’s outfit  _ more _ revealing? At this rate, Lance wasn’t going to survive to see Keith’s final transformation.

“Let’s get back to it, shall we?” Keith said.

Keith grabbed his sword, which Lance realized had also transformed into a bigger, hotter version of itself, though in the sword’s case it was hotter in a literal sense with flames dancing along the blade.

The battle recommenced. Lance quickly discovered that staying alive was exponentially harder when all he wanted to do was oggle Keith’s new body.

“Would you pay attention?” Keith snapped after Lance almost got burned alive. Again. “I thought you wanted to see my final form?”

“I’m trying!” Lance said. “I just, uh…”

“What?” Keith flipped his hair with a teasing smirk. “Am I so beautiful that you’ve no words left?”

“Yes,” Lance replied seriously.

Keith blinked, and a faint blush painted his cheeks beneath the new tattoos.

“Less talk, more fight.”

Lance managed to pull himself together. Good thing, too, because not only was Keith bigger, he also had new attacks that required some quick thinking to counter. Keith used spells Lance had never even heard of, and his sword did twice as much damage as before. Lance hoped that he could trigger the next stage soon. He was getting dangerously low on items and HP.

As if on cue, Keith suddenly let out a cry, clutching his chest where Lance’s arrow had landed. Lance froze, but his worry abated when the shadows wrapped around Keith once again. 

However, where before Keith’s body grew in proportion, this time his form shifted, expanding in all directions. His horns touched the ceiling and his wings looked like they could span an entire house. His tail became longer and thicker, tapering into a point. Pale skin melted into hundreds of ruby scales as Keith’s fangs and claws became longer than Lance’s forearm, and his face elongated into a snout, smoke curling from slitted nostrils. Keith grew and grew and grew, until Lance had to crane his neck to keep eye contact.

Keith chuckled, his voice a low rumble. 

“Told you they weren’t goat horns.”

\-----

Needless to say, Lance’s remaining HP didn’t last long after that. Lance didn’t mind though. As soon as he used his extra life and forfeited the game, Lance excitedly rushed over to admire his husband’s new appearance.

“Ooooh,” Lance said, stroking the warm, dark red scales. “So pretty.”

Keith let out a pleased huff. 

“Not a bad final form,” he agreed.

“Now that you’ve unlocked it, can you turn into a dragon whenever you want?”

Keith shook his head. “As far as I know, lowering my HP is the only way to trigger my alternate forms. They basically work as a defense mechanism.”

“Too bad,” Lance said. “Being a dragon must be awesome.”

“It is pretty cool,” Keith agreed. 

They decided to test out Keith’s new body. Apart from being able to breathe fire, Keith could also create great gusts of wind with a flap of his wings that sent Lance sailing across the room. His red scales were stronger than the toughest armour, and deflected both physical and magical attacks with ease. Any lingering worry Lance had about Keith’s inability to respawn dwindled.

When it was time for dinner, Keith used a spell that took half his mana but fully replenished his HP. Shadows and magic surrounded him for a final time, and Keith flew into the air before shrinking back to his default appearance. The transformation must have taken a lot out of him, because the Demon King then began to drop back down. Lance quickly rushed under him, and caught his husband before he hit the ground.

With one arm behind Keith’s back and the other beneath his knees, Lance held the Demon King close.

“I gotta say, your other forms are badass,” Lance grinned, “but I like this one the most.”

Looping his arms around Lance’s neck, Keith smiled and pressed a sweet kiss to his lips.

“Me too.”

**Author's Note:**

> Keith in his 2nd form: Any last words?
> 
> Lance: Please step on me.
> 
> Keith:......I want a divorce.
> 
> \-----
> 
> Thanks for reading! ヾ(´▽｀*)ﾉ☆
> 
> I’ve got plenty more in store for this series, so subscribe to me or to the “Rain or Shine” series for future updates! And as always, I’m open to suggestions for what you’d like to see!
> 
> If you liked this fic, please leave me a comment/kudos/bookmark! Bonus points if you caught the Zelda easter eggs I threw in, haha.
> 
> As always, special thanks to my beta, Melissa!
> 
> See you next time! ❀(*´◡`*)❀


End file.
